Rubber sole.



R. E. FOSTER. RUBBER SOLE. APPLICATION nun JULY 2. 1908.

984,806.- Patented Feb. 21, 191 1.

VV/7W55'5'E5 /Nl/E/VTOB M @W M,

. provement in rubber soles.

UNITE STATES arana 1 union ROI-0N E. F OSTER, 0F HYDE PARK, MASSACHUSETTS.

RUBBER SOLE.

Specification of Letters iEatent. fatented Feb. 21, 1911.

Application filed ll'uly 2, 1908. Serial No. 441,552. I

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known (that I, RoLoN E. Fos rsn-, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hyde Park, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain-new and useful Improvements in Rubber Soles; and Ida hereby declare-thefol- ,lowing-to he a full, clear, and exact descriprubber, with the edge of the canvas extended toward the tread surface of the sole:;

and in some. instances by the use of folded pieces: of :canvas or textile material embedded in the rubberof the sole. The sole provided with apiece of canvas secured 'on the tread surface is liable to wear through under the ball of the sole and then loosen over-the remainder of the sole in such a Way .asto form a baggy attachment liable to catch on the surface of the ground or tobe- 1 come detached at its edgesand gradually roll loose'from the sole; In the case of plugs of textile material and rubber let into the sole the objection of stiffness and lack of elasticity has been found to arise, which for certain uses is undesirable. folded textile fabric embedded in the' rubber,

.the difliculty has been to produce a sole having sufiicient strength to maintain its integrity.

he general object of the present inventi n is to produce a rubber sole provided with textile wear and friction surfaces arranged in'such a manner as to present substantial areas of the textile material to the tread at one time and yet of such construction that the sole will resist long continued wear without substantial deterioration.

To this end the invention consists in the rubber sole hereinafter described and particularly defined in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings illustratirlg the preferred form of the invention, Figure 1 is an underside plan View of a sole embodying the invention, Fig. 2 is a longitu- In case of dinal section of the sole on line 22 of Fig. 1, showing the solo in its original .conditlon before it has been worn, Fig. 3 is an underside plan of the sole after it has been .worn for some time, and Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section of the sole on the line 1-4 of F ig. 3.

, In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings, the body of the sole 10 is made of rubber. The sole is provided at its tread side 11 with exposed and buried 'textile wear spots. The exposed wear spots 12 and 14 consist of pieces of textile material, such as canvas, properly frictioned and vulcanized tothe tread surface of the sole. These exposed wear spots come into use when the sole is first used, being exposed on the surface when the sole is new as shown in Fig; 1. Buried wear spots 13 and 15 are provided, which when the sole is new are located below the tread surface of the sole, but which becomeexposed on the tread surface by the wearing off of such surface. 'The exposed and buriedwear spots are arranged so that the buried wear spots first appear upon the surface of the sole when the exposed wear spots shall. have been worn off. This issecured by havingthem buried under the tread of the sole'at the depth of the thickness of the exposed wear spots, then when the exposed wear spots 12 and 14 have been worn ofl,the buried wear spots 13and 15 appear upon the tread surface of the sole and become the operative wear spots. The appearance of the sole under these conditions is that illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4.

' In the illustfative embodiment of the invention, the wear spots are comprised in a continuous'piece of canvas which is incorporated by vulcanization in the tread surface of the, sole, the portions 12 and 14 of the piece of canvas being exposed upon the surfaceof the sole when the shoe is new and the portions 13 and 15 thereof at this time being embedded in the solo at the depth of the thickness of the canvas.

The number, arrangement, and shape of the exposed and buried'wear spots. is a matter of indifference in the carrying out of this invention. The arrangement shown is the one preferred for the reason that this relation of the wear spots arranges them in the best place to subserve the function for which they are designed. In this preferred arrangement, the principal wear spot 14 extends across the ball of the sole where the wear is greatest at first, and the wear spots 13'and 15, which come to the surface after some wear, lie next adjacent to the wear spot 14. It is obviousl pieces of canvas.

It is to be understood that, While this in v vention is principally adapted for use on the foreparts of soles, it may also be used onthe heel parts of soles or heels alone, and as a consequence where, in the claim, the word sole is employed to name the article claimed, w

it is intended therebyto define the generic class of treads'used on soles of boots, shoes,

sandals, moccasins or other footwear.

' alon the lines 16, 17,, 18 and 19 and along the ot and dash lines 20 and 21. -.The loose tongues of rubber compound thus formed are folded outward from the center line of the sole and a piece of canvas corresponding in sha-pe to the total area of the four wear spots 12, 13, 14' and 15, having its lateral edges folded inward, is laid in position on this piece of rubber compound and the outimmaterial whether the wear spots be ma e 1110116 or a numberof turned flaps are bent back intotheir former position, then the layer thus prepared is laid in the bottom of the usual sole mold and a second piece of rubber compound of the proper thickness for the remainder of the sole is laid inthe mold and the complemental part of the mold is put in place and is then placed in a vulcanizing press and under the influence of the heat and pressure the rubber compound is vulcanized with the piece of canvas incorporated in place therein.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is v A rubber sole for boots or shoes having vulcanized therein canvasexposed over a substantial area on the tread surface of-the sole to form a wear. and friction surface and canvas vulcanized in the body of the sole near but underneath the tread surface thereof and of. such substantial size as to form a wear and friction surface when the rubber thereove'r; is worn away, substantially as described,

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

v ROLON E. FOSTER. lVitnessesi r ANNIE C. RICHARDSON, ALICE AoKRoYn. 

